Lucia was 4 weeks old in this picture. It caught my eye this morning as I was missing her and praying for her.
Another 4 week old picture on our first trip to meet her. Her smile makes my smile!I am asked all the time what is going on with all the political adoption "STUFF" in Guatemala. I have to admit it is difficult for me to talk about, because I am insecure about talking politics and it is so scary for me. Trying to understand it all is a daily challenge. Our agency has a forum to support, ask questions, update, post pictures for everyone adopting in process or anyone who is already home with an adopted child. On the forum a mom posted a letter that she has sent to all her friends and family explaining the situation. I asked if I could use it on my blog because she did an amazing job explaining the situation in a nutshell. So I am going to copy paste the letter below if you are interested. Keep praying for Lucia to exit PGN without any previos. I saw on the forum yesterday that 3 babies files exited PGN in 7 weeks, the average has been 8-9 weeks. Maybe it is speeding up:)
Dear Friends and Family,
Please, I know this is long, but please take a few minutes today to read it Due to the increasing sensationalistic and inflammatory recent media reports on international adoption and in particular, Guatemalan adoption, I felt a need to educate those of you who I know love and care about our baby girl and us. It deeply pains me that the media's inaccurate reporting of the situation with Guatemalan adoptions lends people to view international adoptions with a skeptical eye, and what that does to the self esteem of internationally adopted children kills me. If the public truly understood the REAL issues going on in Guatemala, and what has happened in the past with other countries and adoptions, they would be shocked and enraged at the injustice.
After living in Guatemala for 2 months, meeting many adopting families, adoption professionals, and speaking to advocates for children and Mayan families in Guatemala about the politics of adoption, I think I have a real understanding for things. We are also lucky enough to work with our adoption agency, For This Child, run by Traci and Chip Orr, who work with Focus on Adoption, in conjunction with the US State Department to help keep international adoption a viable option for children in need, done in a ethical way with the children's best interest- at heart. Why all the media attention and controversy lately concerning Guatemalan adoptions?
1. A Pending Crisis- a Misguided President, in a election year Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has announced plans to effectively suspend all adoptions into the United States as of January 1, 2008. This leaves the lives of more than 5,000 children who have already been matched to adoptive parents in limbo. The birth parents for these children have already relinquished their parental rights and as a result, these children currently have no family home. The effective suspension destroys the prospect for the placement of these children in a permanent, safe and loving family. More so, the Guatemalan government currently does not have the finances or facilities to provide housing for these 5,000 children. For these reasons, Joint Council urges you to support the Guatemala 5000 Initiative. If the president really cared about the poor and the children of Guatemala, his administration would be focused on improving their lives in Guatemala rather than stamp out adoption- a viable legal right that birth families and children are entitled to have. And MILLIONS in financial gain from of all places- UNICEF.
2.UNICEF- A Misguided Aid Organization, UNICEF does some very positive things for children around the world, but their misguided radical position on intercountry adoption is extremely detrimental to the children of Guatemala and other countries. UNICEF has reportedly pledged over $24 Million dollars to President Berger political party ( and you thought the $$ was going to the children!) UNICEF's Stance on Intercountry Adoption Jeopardizes Children The policies and rhetoric of UNICEF ignore the social, ethnic, and economic realities of many countries and advocate for reactionary legal reforms that restrict intercountry adoption to a point where children are forced to live in underfunded institutions rather than joining families abroad. Clearly, international adoption deserves rigorous oversight. And in a perfect world, it might make more sense to place orphans with relatives or neighbors in their home country. But in a perfect world, there would be no orphans in the first place. Guatemala today is a country that simply cannot support all its orphans. It is a country that needs inter-country adoption to provide a better life to at least a small percentage of the tens of thousands of children living in dire poverty. By UNICEFS own statistics, 67% of the children there suffer from malnutrition. They need to recognize that change takes time and that hastily introduced reforms can do more harm than good.
3. THE HAGUE TREATY is being implemented by the US-good in theory, a disaster in reality. For children the treaty was supposed to protect, the results have been catastrophic.PLEASE read the following link, especially the first few pages.http://www.focusonadoption.com/pdfs/FOA%203635%20Support.pdf Written by Focus on Adoption it provides an excellent summary of the issues.
Dear Friends and Family,
Please, I know this is long, but please take a few minutes today to read it Due to the increasing sensationalistic and inflammatory recent media reports on international adoption and in particular, Guatemalan adoption, I felt a need to educate those of you who I know love and care about our baby girl and us. It deeply pains me that the media's inaccurate reporting of the situation with Guatemalan adoptions lends people to view international adoptions with a skeptical eye, and what that does to the self esteem of internationally adopted children kills me. If the public truly understood the REAL issues going on in Guatemala, and what has happened in the past with other countries and adoptions, they would be shocked and enraged at the injustice.
After living in Guatemala for 2 months, meeting many adopting families, adoption professionals, and speaking to advocates for children and Mayan families in Guatemala about the politics of adoption, I think I have a real understanding for things. We are also lucky enough to work with our adoption agency, For This Child, run by Traci and Chip Orr, who work with Focus on Adoption, in conjunction with the US State Department to help keep international adoption a viable option for children in need, done in a ethical way with the children's best interest- at heart. Why all the media attention and controversy lately concerning Guatemalan adoptions?
1. A Pending Crisis- a Misguided President, in a election year Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has announced plans to effectively suspend all adoptions into the United States as of January 1, 2008. This leaves the lives of more than 5,000 children who have already been matched to adoptive parents in limbo. The birth parents for these children have already relinquished their parental rights and as a result, these children currently have no family home. The effective suspension destroys the prospect for the placement of these children in a permanent, safe and loving family. More so, the Guatemalan government currently does not have the finances or facilities to provide housing for these 5,000 children. For these reasons, Joint Council urges you to support the Guatemala 5000 Initiative. If the president really cared about the poor and the children of Guatemala, his administration would be focused on improving their lives in Guatemala rather than stamp out adoption- a viable legal right that birth families and children are entitled to have. And MILLIONS in financial gain from of all places- UNICEF.
2.UNICEF- A Misguided Aid Organization, UNICEF does some very positive things for children around the world, but their misguided radical position on intercountry adoption is extremely detrimental to the children of Guatemala and other countries. UNICEF has reportedly pledged over $24 Million dollars to President Berger political party ( and you thought the $$ was going to the children!) UNICEF's Stance on Intercountry Adoption Jeopardizes Children The policies and rhetoric of UNICEF ignore the social, ethnic, and economic realities of many countries and advocate for reactionary legal reforms that restrict intercountry adoption to a point where children are forced to live in underfunded institutions rather than joining families abroad. Clearly, international adoption deserves rigorous oversight. And in a perfect world, it might make more sense to place orphans with relatives or neighbors in their home country. But in a perfect world, there would be no orphans in the first place. Guatemala today is a country that simply cannot support all its orphans. It is a country that needs inter-country adoption to provide a better life to at least a small percentage of the tens of thousands of children living in dire poverty. By UNICEFS own statistics, 67% of the children there suffer from malnutrition. They need to recognize that change takes time and that hastily introduced reforms can do more harm than good.
3. THE HAGUE TREATY is being implemented by the US-good in theory, a disaster in reality. For children the treaty was supposed to protect, the results have been catastrophic.PLEASE read the following link, especially the first few pages.http://www.focusonadoption.com/pdfs/FOA%203635%20Support.pdf Written by Focus on Adoption it provides an excellent summary of the issues.
THANK YOU for reading this. It means a lot to us.
1 comment:
Lucia is a very cute little girl. She looks like my daughter, who is part Native American on her father's side. Good luck with your international adoption. It strikes me as sadly ironic that with Unicef's crusade against international adoption, much of which involves non-White children, the Ku Klux Klan must be cheering.
Emilia (emilia_e_murphy@yahoo.ca)
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